Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

During his time on death row in California, before he was found innocent and exonerated, Shujaa Graham said he was beaten and spent nearly entire days in a small cell at the facility formerly known as San Quentin State Prison. Even when he was let out in the yard, he could only look up at the sky through the cage that stretched over the roof. He remembered men around him, some of whom were also innocent, sinking into depression.

But most of all, he recalled feeling despair that the state of California, which he had come to for a better life and to escape racism in the South during the 1960s, was trying to kill him.

“I’m 75 years old, but I still can’t get out of my mind when those people were telling me I wasn’t fit to live,” Graham said. “That wounded me, and I carried that with me today.”

Graham moved to Maryland after his release in 1981, where he helped end the death penalty. Now, he is working with statewide and international coalitions to urge California Gov. Gavin Newsom to grant universal clemency to people serving death sentences in the state so that no one else has to experience the dehumanization he did.

“I’m not looking for remedies, I’m just looking for justice,” Graham said. “What happened to me is gone, but what I can do in my final days is to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. This is not just about capital punishment. It’s about social justice.”

I’m 1 of More Than 600 People on CA’s Death Row. Newsom Must End Death Penalty.

The California Anti-Death Penalty Coalition is putting pressure on Newsom to commute the remaining 578 serving death sentences in California before his term ends in five months. The coalition includes exonerees such as Graham, loved ones of those sentenced to death, and victims’ families, as well as more than 200 organizations. The group argues that the death penalty is racist and disproportionately........

© Truthout